Category Archives: Blog

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.

In my feminist utopia, sanitary pads and tampons are provided free of charge by the United States government.

In my current reality, they’re offered at $4 bucks a pack at CVS — and that’s with the savings from my CVS card.

We’re a long way from menstruation equality, which makes Nevada’s recent elimination of the “tampon tax” a critical step forward.

On Tuesday, Nevada voted to do away with their 6.85% sales tax imposed on sanitary pads and tampons.  Read more…

More about Watercooler, Menstruation, Women S Rights, Culture, and Activism

#ThisisMyLane

The National Rifle Association has a bone to pick with “anti-gun doctors” (what) and their collective desire to stop pulling bullets out of patients. They don’t know what they’re talking about, the NRA contends, when they argue in favor of common sense gun control.

“Someone should tell self-important  anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane,” the Wednesday tweet read. “Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves.”

More about Culture, Gun Control, Nra, Doctors, and Hashtag

We now have proof that apps drain less of your phone’s battery life when they use darker colors, like black and gray.

At a recent Android Dev Summit session (via SlashGear), Google revealed what we’ve long suspected: the colors used within apps have a direct impact on smartphone battery life, and white or brighter colors are a bigger drain.

Using an original Pixel phone, Google tested various ways the phone was draining battery life. Brightness was of course one of the most obvious factors; everyone knows that the brighter you set the screen to, the faster your battery depletes. Read more…

More about Mobile, Iphone, Android, Ios, and Dark Mode

More than 100,000 acres of land have been consumed by wildfires in California since Thursday night. Donald Trump would have you believe it’s all the state’s fault.

California’s “forest management” is to blame. Not the confluence of environmental factors that most experts have pointed out. In Trump’s view, California isn’t using federal funds correctly. He even threatens to cut the state off from that money in the future if something doesn’t change. Read more…

More about Science, Culture, Donald Trump, California Wildfires, and Science

Buying gifts for your parents can be tough. What do you get the two people who gave you life, the people who raised you into the responsible adult you’ve grown up to be? 

Shopping for your parents is all about trying to get them something they’ll love and use, but also hopefully something that will help them connect with you (their kid) as well. Might we make a suggestion? Get them some cool tech, something cozy or delicious, and items that will help make their life a bit easier.

If you’re still totally stumped, then don’t worry — that’s what we’re here for. We took some of the guesswork out of buying a present for your mom and dad and rounded up the best gifts, whether they spend most of their time at home or on-the-go traveling. These gifts are guaranteed to make your parents (even more) proud of you, as they brag to their family and friends that they have such an amazing son or daughter.  Read more…

More about Tech, Mashable Shopping, Gift Guide 2018, Gift Guide, and Lifestyle

When all else fails, it’s time to wholeheartedly embrace the mid-’90s roller-rink carpet aesthetic.

Facebook, seeing a steady decline in usage among teens, appears to have done just that with the release of a new “viral clips” app by the name of Lasso. Sporting a design that makes you feel like you need some tokens to play it, Lasso is a transparent rip-off of the popular TikTok app.

The app, available on the iOS App Store and Google Play, aims to be all the things that Facebook isn’t (namely, fun), and comes just a few weeks after word of it oozed out of Menlo Park. 

“Lasso makes it easy for anyone to create and share short videos with fun effects,” reads the App Store description. “Once you’ve found a type of video that’s trending, whether it’s #comedy or #fail, you can use the in-app camera to put your own spin on it with special effects, music and editing tools. Add hashtags to your video to share it with the world!” Read more…

More about Facebook, Apps, Lasso, Tiktok, and Tech

As the colorful confetti rained down around me, I put my hands up and wiggled in a small victory dance. No one around me knew why I was celebrating; all they could see was the white Vive Focus headset covering most of my head. But I knew: I had successfully passed through three training tasks at a car plant.

Except I was actually in a warehouse in San Francisco where virtual and augmented reality company HTC Vive had just announced its expanded Vive Focus system for companies to use in fields like health, entertainment, automotive, aerospace, and retail.

More about Virtual Reality, Vr, Vive, Tech, and Transportation

The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes has taken place every holiday season in New York City since 1933. But this year the always festive finale will look different — and be way more high-tech.

That’s because Intel is bringing in its lightweight Shooting Star Mini drones — the ones that made appearances at the Olympics and the Super Bowl —  for some light-filled, choreographed visions. The final scene is called “Christmas Lights”; it’s all very on theme.

Most notable will be the sheer number of drones: A hundred of them, all synced and moving together to create holiday cheer. The drones hold LED lights that can make 4 billion colorful combinations.  Read more…

More about Holidays, Drones, Intel, Tech, and Drones

Change, inspired by the #MeToo movement, appears to be contagious.

Facebook will suspend its policy of forcing employees to present sexual misconduct claims at a secret legal proceeding known as arbitration, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Now, employees will be able to file public lawsuits against the company and accusers instead of settling the matters internally.

The new policy from Facebook comes one day after the same announcement from Google. CEO Sundar Pichai announced a host of new changes regarding the way it handles sexual misconduct complaints in an email to employees. That came one week after 20,000 Google employees walked out to protest Google’s history with sexual misconduct cases, including giving Android creator Andy Rubin a $90 million payout after he was accused of sexual harassment. Read more…

More about Facebook, Google, Metoo, Sexual Misconduct, and Tech

“Finally I can see my sims fuck in first person.” We were all thinking it, but this Twitter user said it. 

In a recent Twitch livestream, EA announced that the ever-evolving world of Sims would be getting a first-person video mode in The Sims 4. Exciting, right? 

You can watch your Sims do dishes, surf the web, meet neighbors, play with animals, brush their tee—just kidding, it is obviously time to bone. 

EA packaged the update (which is accompanied by a number of other features) as innocently as ever. But in a game practically made famous by sexy dollhouse vibes, they had to have seen this coming.  Read more…

More about Entertainment, Update, Ea Games, First Person View, and Sims